Thank you for your great question.
I am also happy to hear you speak French.
I will briefly describe how we are doing things. I will also give you an example I experienced and saw with my own eyes.
UNESCO makes lists. The world heritage list, which people are familiar with, is a list of extraordinary sites with universal cultural value. The coordinates of those sites and sites that are on tentative lists—in other words, those that may be added in the near future—are all identified and codified. Their geographic coordinates are known, and UNESCO has them on hand.
The 1954 Hague Convention, the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, helps countries determine what sites should be protected in case of a conflict on their territory. Those coordinates are also all recorded at UNESCO. These are things we can produce easily.
I have an example to show you that actions taken by UNESCO have had an immediate impact.
An air campaign was carried out by NATO or by a coalition in Libya. A call was launched to countries, which were part of that campaign, so as to protect sites located in Libya. As the campaign's commander and his political assistant were accessible, Canada asked UNESCO for all the details related to the coordinates. We provided that directly to the command, which received the order to leave those sites alone.
Not all countries at war or in a conflict or all countries where military operations are taking place follow the rules of international law. However, some countries do follow them.
UNESCO can transmit that information if the participants in the war want to respect their obligations, in accordance with international law, to keep their hands off those objects. That is something we can do directly.
Here is another measure that can be taken. We can provide direct assistance by giving technical advice on, for example, the way museums can prepare a collection, mobilize it and transfer it. All museum directors have plans in mind in case of fire or earthquake, but they don't have a plan in case of war. However, a war can make them have to move their collections over long distances, among other things.
So UNESCO can provide technical advice. For instance, we translated into Ukrainian a guide that shows how to quickly prepare to protect and transport various types of collections. Some collections are archives and others are cultural objects, like those we see in traditional museums. That guide helps develop accurate plans and advises on how to do that within a short time frame. That helps avoid losses and ensure that everything is recorded and prepared properly when that kind of action has to be taken.
Protection equipment is also supplied.